1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to a vital sign monitor achieving a highly reliable alarm function.
2. Related Art
The vital sign monitor is installed at an intensive care unit in the hospital or ward, and informs the clinical staff with an alarm sound at a bedside of the patient, or allows the clinical staff to check by displaying the details on a display monitor, when an abnormal vital sign of the patient is found such as electrocardiograph (heart rate, arrhythmia), blood pressure, respiration, SpO2, body temperature, and urinary volume and so on.
And the clinical staff aware of this alarm sound, hastens to the patient, stops the alarm sound, checks the patient""s condition, and gives an appropriate treatment.
In this way, the conventional vital sign monitor mainly pays attention only to a variation in vital signs, without discriminating the cause of the variation in vital signs, and simply recognizes its abnormal condition to indicate an alarm.
Also, the conventional vital sign monitor makes the clinical staff conduct an operation of stopping or suppressing a sound or an indication of the alarm device.
However, the vital sign data measured by the vital sign monitor may contain a great number of artifacts or noises, which are caused by the medical treatment such as the blood sampling or medication performed by the clinical staff, and the patient""s related factors such as body movement.
Further, a treatment such as bronchial suction for removing the phlegm within the bronchi, or a pain may become a stimulation to the living body, causing the vital signs to change temporarily, and announcing unnecessary alarm sound in many instances.
In this way, the conventional vital sign monitor does not consider a false alarm due to false recognition of the alarm condition, or a practice situation of the treatment care of the clinical staff, announcing unnecessary alarm in some instances.
Therefore, the alarm function of the vital sign monitor can not obtain the confidence of the clinical staff, and may continue to announce the unnecessary alarm, obstructing the sleeping of other patients. Hence, there are many requests for improvements from the clinical site.
Also, the operation of stopping the alarm sound by the clinical staff is quite different from the operation of the medical apparatus for the treatment. Hence, this operation of stopping the alarm sound may impede the treatment practice of the clinical staff, and further increase the danger of hospital infection by making a touch on such alarm device during the treatment.
The present invention has been achieved in the light of the above-mentioned conventional problems and affairs, and it is an object of the invention to provide a vital sign monitor capable of suppressing an unnecessary alarm display by recognizing the cause of a variation in vital signs in consideration of the medical practice of the clinical staff, as well as implementing a highly reliable alarm function by allowing discrimination of the unexpected variation in vital signs.
To accomplish the above-mentioned object, according to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a vital sign monitor comprising vital sign detecting means for detecting vital signs, medical apparatus operation detecting means for detecting the operation of a medical apparatus, and judging means for judging the correlation between the vital signs and a medical apparatus operation condition on the basis of the vital signs detected by the vital sign detecting means and the operation condition of the medical apparatus detected by the medical apparatus operation detecting means. Therefore, the cause of a variation in vital signs can be recognized.
According to a second aspect of the present invention, the vital sign monitor is provided by further comprising indicating means for indicating the correlation between the vital signs and the medical apparatus operation condition as an alarm or a message depending upon an instruction signal of the judging means. Therefore, the alarm or message can be indicated in view of the presence or absence of the operation of the medical apparatus.
According to a third aspect of the present invention, there is provided the vital sign monitor including the judging means which judges whether or not a variation in the vital signs detected by the vital sign detecting means is within a range of variation estimated from the operation of the medical apparatus detected by the medical apparatus operation detecting means. Hence, it is possible to make sure of whether or not the variation in vital signs is within the estimated range of variation.
According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, there is provided the vital sign monitor including the indicating means indicates an alarm or a message on the basis of a judgement result of whether or not the variation in the vital signs is within the range of variation estimated. It is possible to make sure of whether or not the variation in vital signs is within the estimated range of variation in terms of an alarm or a message.
According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, there is provided the vital sign monitor including the judging means further judges whether or not the variation in the vital signs detected by the vital sign detecting means is beyond a predetermined range in a state where any change in the operation condition of the medical apparatus is not detected by the medical apparatus operation detecting means, and the indicating means indicates an alarm displaying that the predetermined range is exceeded. Hence, it is possible to make sure of the variation in vital signs irrespective of the operation of the medical apparatus.
According to a sixth aspect of the present invention, there is provided the vital sign monitor such that in the case where the indicating means indicates the alarm in accordance with the correlation when the operation condition of the medical apparatus is detected by the medical apparatus operation detecting means, the judging means instructs the indicating means to indicate an alarm displaying a state of the operation condition of the medical apparatus.
According to a seventh aspect of the present invention, there is provided a vital sign monitor comprising vital sign detecting means for detecting vital signs, clinical staff practice recognizing means for detecting and recognizing a practice of a clinical staff, and judging means for judging the correlation between the vital signs and the practice of the clinical staff on the basis of the vital signs detected by the vital sign detecting means and the practice of the clinical staff recognized by the clinical staff practice recognizing means. Hence, the cause of a variation in vital signs can be recognized.
According to an eighth aspect of the present invention, there is provided the vital sign monitor further comprising indicating means for indicating the correlation between the vital signs and the practice of the clinical staff as an alarm or a message depending upon an instruction signal of the judging means. Hence, the alarm or message can be indicated in consideration of the practice of the clinical staff.
According to a ninth aspect of the present invention, there is provided the vital sign monitor including the judging means judges whether or not a variation in the vital signs detected by the vital sign detecting means is within a range of variation estimated from the practice of the clinical staff recognized by the clinical staff practice recognizing means. Hence, it is possible to make sure of whether or not the variation in vital signs is within the estimated range of variation.
According to a tenth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a vital sign monitor including the indicating means which indicates an alarm or a message on the basis of a judgement result of whether or not the variation in the vital signs is within the estimated range of variation. Hence, it is possible to make sure of whether or not the variation in vital signs is within the estimated range of variation in terms of an alarm or a message.
According to an eleventh aspect of the present invention, there is provided the vital sign monitor including the judging means further judges whether or not a variation in the vital signs detected by the vital sign detecting means is beyond a predetermined range in the state where no change in the practice of the clinical staff is detected by the clinical staff practice recognizing means, and the indicating means indicates an alarm displaying that the predetermined range is exceeded. Hence, it is possible to make sure of the variation in vital signs irrespective of the practice of the clinical staff.
According to a twelfth aspect of the present invention, there is provided the vital sign monitor in the case where the indicating means indicates the alarm in accordance with the correlation when the operation condition of the medical apparatus is detected by the medical apparatus operation detecting means, the judging means instructs the indicating means to indicate an alarm displaying a state of the operation condition of the medical apparatus.
According to a thirteenth aspect of the present invention, there is provided the vital sign monitor including the clinical staff practice recognizing means recognizes the practice of the clinical staff when the medical apparatus is operated.
According to a fourteenth aspect of the present invention, there is provided the vital sign monitor including the clinical staff practice recognizing means recognizes the practice of the clinical staff using image-pickup means.
According to a fifteenth aspect of the present invention, there is provided the vital sign monitor in he case that using the image-pickup means, it is recognized that the clinical staff changes the body position of a patients, or there is body movement of the patient, the indicating means is inhibited to indicate the alarm. Hence, it is possible to suppress unnecessary alarm for the practice of the treatment care by the clinical staff or the body movement of the patient.